Gadget Freak Case #224: Gadget Remembers What You Need to Do

George Tempesta had a problem. He couldn't remember scheduled family events or even when to take out the trash. His wife suggested he come up with a device to remind everyone in the family when a chore needed to be done or an event needed to be attended.

George came up with a motion-triggered calendar. The ChronoDot keeps track of time and dates for chores and events. A motion sensor triggers a response when someone walks by the gadget. A WAV file message is displayed to nag the family member about an imminent chore or event.

George, do we really need this? In our house this is the task my wife has taken on. I don't think she likes it, but I wonder what she would do if we had one of these. Of course, you would have to have multiple devices because we would find a way to avoid it in our house.

A motion-triggered calendar could be great for anyone with short term memory loss due to disease, such as Alzheimer's, or brain damage from TBI, such as being near an explosion or repeated concussions.

But, like the earmuff headphones...is this Freak worthy? It seems that the new criteria is complex construction build process over innovation. Where's the "wow" factor?

I actually built this to take the burden of being the NAG in the house off of my wife at HER request. She said she doesn't want to feel like my mother always telling me not to forget this or not to forget that. She has to do that enough with our 3 kids :) . This device has actually helped me not forget the trash or recycling many times since we turned on. I was born without much short term memory and necessity is the mother of invention right?

As far as the "Wow" factor, I am still learning this stuff so I haven't been able to build what we actually envision this as being yet. It is supposed to turn into a wall mounted digital picture frame with a touchscreen. It will recognize the individual who walks by (courtesy kinect type profiling) and deliver specific messages that can all be set up and recorded using the touch screen. This would help it blend in instead of being an ugly black box hanging on the wall. Once the profiling capability is there, messages can be left for other individuals in the household. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I would hope that would have a little more kick?

Easier (in a sense) than developing the Kinect-style profiling would be to have you (and the wife and kids) "chipped" with RFID implants, which could easily and inexpensively be read when walking past the scanner/calendary. The technology and procedure are simple... convincing the other "subjects", maybe not so much.

Hi NadineJ, I think Gadget Freak projects are about individuals grapping stuff in their junk boxes and creating cool devices. Innovation is about creating a unique or cleaver solution through physical design improvement or a new assembly process. All of the projects thus far seem to illustrate innovation as well as creativity.

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